NYRA: Orb, Oxbow, Palace Malice headed to Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — All three winners of this year’s Triple Crown races will be in town for this summer’s season at Saratoga Race Course, which is marking the 150th anniversary of thoroughbred racing in Saratoga Springs, the New York Racing Association said Monday.

Orb, Oxbow and Palace Malice will be working out in Saratoga and NYRA officials hope all three will be entered in the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 24. It wasn’t initially known which races they’ll run during the 40-day meet, which opens July 19 and runs through Labor Day.

A NYRA official said all three are expected to be stabled on the track grounds by opening day. All ran at Saratoga last year as two-year-olds.

NYRA said the season will feature nearly $15 million in purse money. Among the other top races, the $750,000 Whitney Invitational Handicap will be run on Aug. 3, the 150th anniversary of the first organized thoroughbred races in Saratoga.

The $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes is set for July 27 and the Alabama Stakes for Aug. 24, also a $600,000 race.

NYRA will also be offering 45-minute paid walking tours of the track. The cost will be $3 for individuals and $10 for groups of four. There will be no tours on Travers Day, or on Tuesdays when the track is closed.

NYRA typically holds its Saratoga preview news conference in June at a suburban Albany hotel, but moved the event 30 miles north to the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion, just down the street from the historic track. Last year the event wasn’t held at all as NYRA dealt with turmoil that included the firing of its president, Charles Hayward. He was dismissed that May when state investigators accused NYRA of knowingly overcharging bettors by more than $8 million over a 15-month period.

NYRA announced last week that it has named Christopher Kay as its next president and CEO as of July 1.